Monday, August 30, 2010

(Above) Early Prosthetic Leg; Hand-formed aluminum with flush aircraft rivets. Light, elegant and very sculptural, with a leather-hinged foot.

(Above) Beautiful and Delicately Sculpted Face for Medical Study: Cast in hollow hard rubber with a lacquer finish. The highly detailed front is hand-drawn and labeled with facial muscles. Made in France, the back is signed. It reads “le masque d’etude”, S. Laule....

(Above) Highly Detailed Wax Anatomical Head Section: This early wax model is signed “Lehrmittelwerke” and was hand-made in Berlin. The fabric covered wood and glass sealed display case measures 7.25” x 9.25”x 2.5”. The colors are crisp with beautiful and delicate details.

(Above) Early “Bock-Steger Lips” Anatomical Head: This plaster signed model measures 10”x 9.5” at the base. You can call it life-size. The brain is removeable and breaks down into 3 sections.

His collection is unique and world famous. His collection groups the odd objects of the world that cross into man’s attempt to make the world of science and medicine better—those objects that attempted to be ahead of their time. These objects are real—objects that Jules Verne or a demented Mr. Wizard would have enjoyed. Some worked wonderfully and others failed miserably. It doesn’t matter to Erenberg, it just has to fit his very odd criteria.

HERITAGE AUCTION GALLERIES, located in Dallas, Texas is one of the top auction houses in the United States. For illustration art, they are second to none. For years, in this category, Pin-up and Glamour Art has dominated the auction house scene. Until, surprisingly, these pulp fiction illustrations burst into the fray with some record prices. The high seller was a piece in the collection/estate of John McLaughlin. It was entitled “The Evil Flame, pulp cover. Spicy Mystery Stories (see top illustration).

According to the auction house, this particular illustration has an interesting history:

“This is not only the most important Ward pulp cover we’ve ever offered — it’s one of the absolute best pulp covers that exists, by any artist. Iconic is the adjective that best sums up the entire over-the-top approach that pulps are now celebrated for. As pulp art historian Robert Lesser so vividly recounted about the Ward approach in his book, Pulp Art, Gramercy Books, 1997, “One day in April 1942 Mayor la Guardia spied an unusual Spicy mystery on the newsstand and exploded in instant rage. He ruled on the spot: ‘No more Spicy pulps in this city.’

H. J. Ward was the cover artist and it was one of his most daring: sexual tension, violence in action, a beautiful woman, all painted with aggressive brushwork to create a cover that couldn't fail to catch the eye.”

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

(Above) LACOSTE challenged Chinese artist LiXiaofeng to create two different Polo shirts for the 2010 Holiday Collector’s Series. For both, he had to adapt his work methods slightly. For the limited edition printedpolo, he chose blue and white shards with lotus and children designs from the KangxiPeriod (1662 - 1772 AD) of the QingDynasty (1644 - 1911 AD). The lotus grows from mud underwater to emerge as a flower, symbolizing purity and rebirth. Images of babies represent fertility, as during that period the high infant mortality rate meant that people decorated ceramics with babies hoping they would be blessed with children.

Click any image for larger view.

(Above) China forbids the export of ancient artifacts including porcelain shards, so for the Porcelain Polo art work, Li decided to use new shards so that the piece could eventually be shipped out of the country. Inspired by the early MingDynasty (1368 -1644 AD), he painted porcelain bowls with images of a scholar contemplating a scenic landscape surrounded by an orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum and plum blossom. He chose to use under-glazed red in addition to the quintessential Mingblue and white. Red represents blood and life force.

Click any image for larger view.

(Above) It took Xiaofeng three full months to paint, fire, fragment, shape, polish, and finally link together the 317 shards to create the Porcelain Polo, which is the most expensive and most exclusive LACOSTE polo to date. The Porcelain Polo was unveiled in Paris last June, and later exhibited at the Musée des Arts et Métiers. Finally, the work will be shown in Bejing this fall at Li Xiaofeng’s first one-man show organized by the Red Gate Gallery, the first private contemporary art gallery to be established in China.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

A FRIEND TURNED ME ON TO THIS. I LOVE IT... as much for the great video as the music. The Rassle is comprised of former Virgins affiliate Erik Ratensperger, Marc Solomich of The Takeover UK, and Reed and Blair Van Nort of Young Lords.

Monday, August 23, 2010

THIS WEEKEND I HAD THE GREAT FORTUNE TO reacquaint myself with an old classmate by the name of Malcolm Jones, a writer for Newsweek and longtime newspaper reporter. The occasion was our 40th high school reunion in Winston-Salem, NC, and it was a great time. Malcolm recently wrote a memoir that I have been reading non-stop since I left, a book entitled Little Boy Blues, a recounting of his life growing up in the Twin City.

I enjoyed a thread throughout his book, his astonishment as a youngster in seeing his first marionette show and subsequent Christmas present(s) of receiving marionettes as gifts. His marionettes became a part of his personal world as an only child, a world sometimes misunderstood by relatives who often asked “is Malcolm still playing with dolls?” So, in honor of getting to know Malcolm again—after a short, 40-year hiatus, I dedicate this post to him. Watch for a future post on this fascinating book about growing up in the South in the 1950s and 60s. His book was dead on in capturing a slice of Southern life one never understands unless you have lived it. His words are bringing back a flood of memories. And oh, btw— Amazon gives it 5 stars.

And now, to the post!

ERIK SANKO is a musician, artist and marionette-maker who lives in New York City. I think his marionettes are creepy and wonderful—like Tim Burton characters. Sanko produces these figures for elaborate shows—certainly an experience that one would be fortunate to see.

The Village Voice:“...a repulsively refulgent marionette show featuring the seven deadly sins... [Sanko] and erstwhile Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman offer a delightfully eerie score that tickles and alarms. Irish songster Gavin Friday lends his gravelly tones to the narration. The design team has built costumes and sets with any number of sinister trims and frills. Indeed, for those souls with a taste for the elegantly macabre, attendance is highly advised. To miss it now that would be a sin.”

The New York Times: “Mr. Sanko’s figures are the grim spawn of Edward Gorey and David Lynch, with papier-mache faces more grizzled and world-weary than those of most character actors.‘ Very few puppet theaters take advantage of their creepy factor,’ Mr. Sanko said... The set underscores why The Fortune Teller is an anomaly in the sphere of marionette theater, or any theater: a level of intricacy most commonly seen in fine art.”